About Wayne McGregors Chroma

Wayne McGregor is one of the most innovative choreographers of our time – known for his interdisciplinary approach and for an analytical, technological, and physical exploration that continually pushes the boundaries of what dance can be. Chroma marked a turning point in his collaboration with The Royal Ballet and led to his appointment as the company’s Resident Choreographer – the first person with a background from contemporary dance to hold this role. 

In Chroma, McGregor opens a space where the body can fully dominate: a minimalist, white stage environment where the dancers’ lines, explosiveness, and precision emerge with almost surgical clarity. The work, which premiered at The Royal Ballet in 2006, explores the human body’s physical and emotional extremities through a distinct, energy-driven movement language. 

“Chroma deals with the architecture of the body. The set is stark white, so the bodies of the 10 dancers are more clearly exposed. The colour comes from the tonality of their skin. The focus is the body itself as a technical instrument. The bodies are the driver of the piece”
– Wayne McGregor on Chroma 

The music – a powerful mix of original compositions by Joby Talbot and new orchestrations of tracks by rock duo The White Stripes – gives the piece a rhythmic pulse that drives the dancers through a landscape of intensity, contrasts, and raw nerve. 

The stage environment was created by British architect John Pawson, known for his minimalist style. With Chroma, he designed scenography for the first time. 

“Often in my own choreographies I have actively conspired to disrupt the spaces in which the body performs. Each intervention, usually some kind of addition, is an attempt to see the context of the body in a new or alien way. On reading John Pawson’s Minimum I was captivated by this notion of subtraction, the ‘essential’ space, which seems to reduce elements to make visible the invisible. Intriguingly, although Pawson’s designs do give definition to space(s), they are somehow always boundary-less. This potential ‘freedom space’ would be an extraordinary environment for a new choreography, where the grammar and articulation of the body is made crystal clear, graphic, and unmediated. It could be a space where the body becomes absolutely architectural. At the same time, in creating volume(s) of tone for the choreography to inhabit the body can behave as a frequency of color—in freedom from white: CHROMA.”  
— Wayne McGregor on Chroma 

For McGregor, the body is an architectural landscape, a system of thoughts, impulses, and lines in motion. In Chroma, this becomes especially evident: a work where the body not only fills the space, but shapes it. 

Chroma was praised by critics for its innovative combination of form, energy, and aesthetics, and received the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2007. Since then, the work has been performed by leading ballet companies around the world. 

In 2020, the Norwegian National Ballet presented Chroma for the first time in Norway, as part of the festival Mesteraften x 12. However, it ended after just one performance – before stages across the country abruptly shut down due to the pandemic. 

Now, in 2026, eleven new opportunities await to experience the masterpiece, when Chroma is presented alongside Glen Tetley's Voluntaries and a newly created work by Samantha Lynch.